Midterm – volunteer feedback

My name is Sarah and I am French. I have been living in the country of the eagle and volunteering in PVN Albania for 5 months. I have arrived in early July 2022, right in the summer season. 

As soon as I arrive, I am excited to start my volunteering and feel useful to the community. 

I work in a community center that welcomes young people with low opportunities. 

My Albanian mentor had previously warned me that the children of this center do not speak English, so I prepared myself by considering the body language, through the activities and through the staff members. The children are happy to meet a stranger and teach me some Albanian words. They want to know me and integrate me despite our linguistic differences. 

However, weeks pass and language difficulties are always a barrier to my inclusion. Moreover, the work I do not light me up.

I decide to discuss it with my mentor, who quickly finds me another community center where staff members and some of the beneficiaries speak English. I am responsible for helping young people with their English homework. I appreciate this new relationship with children and my new status as a “teacher” but this work is still not stimulating me enough. 

Meanwhile, I am included in the most PVN events; trainings, project evaluations, conferences and parties. 

I was also responsible for organizing a French evening at the end of November 2022 that I took to heart to prepare.

Thanks to the free time provided by the civic service (and Albania), I take the opportunity to develop other skills: video editing, photography, writing, calligraphy. I have discovered new passions and want to use them for the benefit of the organisation. 

The Executive Director of the organisation, listening to my well-being, has agreed to put me in charge of the communication and promotion of the Organisation in order to make me go back to France with a professional experience in connection with my futur projects. 

I particularly appreciate the open-mindedness of the NGO leaders to allow me the opportunity to develop my skills, despite setting aside the original missions. 

So far, I have been professionally thriving in my volunteering in Albania and I am pretty sure I will regret the day of my departure.